Dark Goddess
by Lady Marmenoul
Summary: Luc DeChamps survived the death of his Carpathian family and adopted human family. 800 years is a long time to live, especially when the last 700 years have been a bleak existence remembering honor. He's survived so much; can he survive death herself?
1. Chapter 1

**Dark Goddess**

**Inspired by Christine Feehan, brilliant creator of the _Dark_ Carpathian series. The main characters here are based on Feehan's series, but are the product of my imagination. In places, names of Feehan characters may appear in this story. **

**Chapter 1: The Wait**

**Chama, New Mexico, October 31, Twilight **

Luc patrolled the plaza, waiting for the evil he knew was too vicious to stay away. He hadn't meant to stay here this long, in this small New Mexican town. Really, it was happenstance that brought him here, that kept him from his meeting in Brazil. He knew Rudolfo couldn't wait much longer to give him the artifact he traveled from Iceland to collect. Rudolfo had his own worries, his own demons to fight. Still, the man waited in his house outside the Amazon Basin for Luc, and still, Luc knew he couldn't meet his obligation to Rudolfo or the hundreds of people who depended upon him while there was still a persistently vile tang in the air in this village, not after last night. As an owl flying south from Colorado, Luc happened to sense the evil in Chama in time to save two innocent lives. He knew the villagers sensed evil was prowling their town. Tomorrow the yearly two-day festival of _El Dia de los Muertos _would begin. Children should be laughing and families should be setting up altars and paper lanterns in yards, cooking rich foods, and decorating paper-mache and candy calavaras, offerings of welcome to ancestral spirits and deceased loved ones. What activities he did sense were subdued, taking place inside small homes, hushed. Incense and sage smug sticks burned from several family altars to ward off the fear that hung in the air with the unnatural thick fog. Instead of festive music and a parade of children dressed in finely embroidered bright dresses and jackets, whispered prayers reached his ears; prayers to the Virgin Mother, to patron saints, prayers for protection for the long night.

Luc was no saint. With his almost black eyes flashing red in the shadows cast by the mission tower, he looked like the very monster the villagers were praying deliverance from. Luc closed his eyes for a moment and waited. He could wait, he could be extremely patient. He sent message to Rudolfo, quickly telling him he would be delayed another night. _"Be careful my friend, it seems this dark one is not so much targeting the village as you. He stays near you for some reason I cannot see. Have you need of assistance?"_

"_No, Rudolfo. I don't understand his game, but it's not me that's keeping him here. To choose a small village such as this to prey upon, he must be looking for something. There are no females here to tempt a vampire; I've scanned every woman and girl for a hint of power, but there is nothing unusual in the area. I cannot think what would interest him enough to stay after I almost killed him last night, but he has remained close. He is too weakened from our battle to rise yet, but I sense he will return to the cemetery later tonight. He will return, but he knows I will be waiting to finish him. It makes no sense._

"_He is young and with little power. Why did you allow him to live another night?"_

Luc was careful to keep his response controlled. He blocked his mind path momentarily while he formulated his response and ran his fingers automatically through his thick brown hair, tying it away from his face in a que. Every muscle in his large body rippled and tensed as his mind churned with terrible facts. He did not feel. He did not. He sensed but that was not truly feeling. He could smell, taste, and burn at the touch of evil, but he did not emotionally feel. He depended upon his hyper-developed senses to gauge the approach of his enemies; he could sense them deeper and long before other hunters of his kind. In this sensing he was the best of his kind and he was a great warrior in his own right, responsible for hundreds of kills, for protecting thousands more untold lives. He lived by and hung onto honor as a reason to exist, but he felt no personal pride in his abilities. No, he did not, not ever in 700 years, feel. Yet, patroling the quiet graveyard and walking among the decaying headstones, his intellect recognized an emotional response from a long-ago memory. **_"What does it mean that Rudolfo's questioning troubles me?" _**Luc closed his eyes and cooly analyzed that part of himself that craved the vampire's death. Killing vampires was a part of his existence, but not something he looked forward to. He looked forward to nothing, felt nothing. **_"I feel. I am feeling anger. This is it then, the darkness in me is taking over. I must hold on through this last mission. I will meet Rudolfo, then I will meet the dawn." _**He did not want his friend of almost a millennia to know how close the darkness was to claiming him. If he did, Rudolfo would come. Rudolfo had just found Patricia three years ago. She was his light, his lifemate. To come to Luc now could be a danger to both his last friend living friend and his lifemate. He wasn't sure he could control his feelings around even Rudolfo, not when he could imagine ripping his throat out for the impertinence of his last question. Luc felt an urgent need to kill and do it violently. He knew where to channel that need, toward the evil that would come again to the village if he didn't stop it.

"_I have traced it to its lair and am heading there now. I know not what the creature is looking for, but if I don't stop it, it will be back. It also knows now I am waiting to finish it. There is nothing to merit such a risk as this one is taking with its own life; nothing but human remains."_

"_Have you scanned below the earth in this place? Could there be something more in the graveyard to lure him?"_

Luc knew what Rudolfo was thinking, a hidden tunnel, an underground cave, that would be natural here in this remote village and legendary land of brujos and dark flying men. It would make sense that the vampire was looking for sources of a mage's power. _"No, I have checked. There is no taint to the earth in the church graveyard. It echoes of human grief and silence, nothing more. _

Yet, Luc reflected, for the first time in 700 years he felt here. Walking these grounds, something dark and ugly was uncurling in his mind. Careful not to give Rudolfo a hint that anything was wrong, he added, "_I will check the place once more when I am finished with the vampire. If there is something else here to destroy, be assured I will do so before coming to you."_

"_Fight well and fight for our people. Patricia and I will await your coming."_

Luc sent a picture of a bow of thanks to his friend as he broke the channel of communication. He didn't need the reminder of who he was fighting for, he thought, tension prickling again. _**"DO I need such reminders? If so, how long can I heed them?" **_


	2. Chapter 2

**Dark Goddess Chapter 2:**

**Do****ñ****a Sebastiana**

Luc tilted on his glossy back owl wings and banked sharply above a ravine. He took his human form on the sandy brown cliffs near the Colorado border. Gazing down, he felt with his eyes the invisible webs laced with toxins below the rocks' surface. He cocked his head as gazed down below him, considering his position and options. Though the sun had set nearly half an hour before, it was still early. The unnatural fog helped block much of the remaining light, but he had gained the strength over the centuries to rise earlier and stay longer in sunlight. His childhood with his human family had also changed his physiology in slight ways. Luc learned that if it was vital to do so, he could project himself into sunlight and remain awake longer or rise earlier.

His prey did not have this advantage. Luc knew Tomas was newly-turned, barely into his third century of life when he allowed the dark beast to claim his soul. He reflected on the loss of the man he had never met, but had admired. Like Luc, Tomas could project himself out of his body, but his gift was not the same. Tomas had been a spirit traveler, one who could commune with the spirits of those who had passed on to the Shadow World. Before his turning he had been an asset, gathering vital information that had been lost in the mists of death and the past. Since the vampires and mages had joined forces, the Carpathians needed any information they could glean about how to fight the powerful and evil magic of these combined forces. The prince of the Carpathian people was hopeful the answers could be found in the past by one who could enter the Shadow World and commune with those healers and sages long past from Earthly life. Tomas had already learned herbal cures to combat certain arcane mage poisons and warding spells to block rare types of magical assault.

The Carpathians left no written records of their existence; no history or volumes of wisdom from the past were recorded to draw upon. To do so was far too dangerous, and writing history was also a human custom, one the Carpathians had no need of. What was vital to know for survival was a part of every Carpathian's consciousness, imprinted at an instinctual level upon every soul. As he had learned from the newly-converted women, even the ancient language of power and healing chants could be learned by the women once they had fully joined the Carpathian race. Then, like each of his people, the women's unique gifts would emerge over time. Besides discovering his limited ability to project his body while resting when he was a child, Luc's talent was calling forth. He had heard along the common path of a newly-discovered and claimed woman, Sybil, a precious gift to their people, who had a power similar to his, but she was primarily an earth healer.

His gift wasn't to heal, it was only to call. Luc stood some 500 ft above the evil one's lair. Luc felt Tomas' first stirrings beneath the earth but knew he was not ready to rise yet. He was too young and in need of blood after Luc's last battle with him. He let the vile thing get away with his heart only because a young, pregnant woman's life was in danger. Tomas had grabbed her as she knelt by a grave with flowers and held her by the throat, scratching her with his black claws just deep enough to make small beads of blood pool on her skin. With a taunting grin and his eyes locked on Luc, the vampire's long, black tongue darted to the wound, lapping blood. Each time Luc advanced, Tomas parried and scratched the young woman until her throat and face were covered with open gashes. The only way to save the woman, to get the poisons out of her body and save the unborn child was to let the vampire flee. It took Luc the remainder of the night to completely heal the woman and remove all traces of the traumatic event from her memory. Healing was not his first gift, he was drained after this and had to hunt and go to ground.

Feeling the squirming sickness of the earth beneath him, Luc realized what he had first sensed was no ordinary vampire protection. This was something else, and, hearing the pulse beating beneath him, Luc knew it was alive. He closed his eyes and issued the command in his mind:

_**"COME."**_

A groaning and screeching sound wrenched the poisoned earth as hundreds of thin roots burst forth and whipped about, trying to snake around his ankles. The roots glistened with a slimy dark coating, and the stench of tained vampire blood fouled the air. Luc floated above the earth mere millimeters out of reach of the vein-like living whips and repeated the command.

_**"COME!" **_

The groaning of the earth mounted to a deafening roar, and, in a scream of rage, the vampire burst upward, encased in a cocoon of roots filled with his own thick blood. Hundreds of the thin root-like growths filled with noxious blood ran from the cocoon to puncture his body. He hissed and steaming spittle clung in strings from his yellow fangs as his red eyes locked on Luc. Luc had only a moment to assimilate what he was seeing, but he understood.

"So Tomas, you have found a way to give yourself transfusions of your own poison. You heal quickly wrapped in the arms of your own twisted magic."

Before Tomas answered, Luc knew this was another secret from the Shadow World. Tomas was a spirit traveler, but now he was using his ability to help vampires learn faster ways to heal and most likely other evil magic. Tomas had to be stopped; there was no way of knowing what the vampires had already learned from his ability to traverse the world of death. The blood-filled roots sizzled and burned as they touched the earth, releasing toxic vapors and high-pitched screams of their own. Luc focused his energy on the unholy cocoon, a macabre parody of a life-giving placenta. The lightening bolt he called made a clean strike, leaving behind the sharp tang of ozone.

The cocoon destroyed, the vampire stood fully exposed, the stumps of bloody roots still protruding from his body like broken arrows. He curled his lips and snapped his fangs, ready to strike. Luc provoked him:

"It almost seems a shame to destroy you, Tomas. You are still brilliant."

Tomas paused, distracted by the praise. His mouth curved over his fangs in a grotesquely smug smile.

"Yes, I am brilliant; but of course, that is evident even to you. I discovered the secret to bend the earth to my aid. The key is really quite simple, bloodstone and a simple spell." His voice switched to the deeper, hypnotic register used to lure prey, and Tomas began a slow dance as he spoke again: "Luc, you are more like me than you know. The darkness grows inside you, I can feel you, you know, I know how badly you want to kill. Join with me Luc, and I will teach you all I know. We are the only ones meant to survive."

Rocking as he moved and speaking in a sing-song, low voice, Tomas seemed totally at peace. A mask of serene beauty covered his face. To a human, Tomas would be irresistable. To Luc, the facade was transparent and made the vampire even more vile, but he bid his time, seeing if he could bait Tomas. Luc paced around him, talking and moving in a tighter circle.

"Losing you was a devastating blow for our people. You were honored for your abilities. I heard talk of you being considered Mikhail's chief advisor, trusted only as he trusts Gregori and a few others."

"Liar!" Thomas hissed, suddenly letting the mask of beauty drop. Spittle flew from his fangs and sizzled upon the rocks. "I was never appreciated! Not truly! I have unfathomable knowledge, knowledge no other living being possesses! Yet, after all my contributions, did our precious prince allow me to leave our homeland and search for a lifemate? No! I was at his bidding but no thought was ever given to me and my needs!"

"Tsk," Luc clicked his tongue and an expression of bored annoyance crossed his face as he advanced. "POOR Tomas. Not appreciated or not given permission to do as you will. You crossed over to killing because you were an impatient child. The very existence of your people hangs in the balance and you think only of your needs. Your greed disgusts me."

"Greed? I gave over 200 years of my life in service to your prince! " The vampire raged as he advanced to meet Luc. "You do not know what I suffered! While I fought the darkness, I stayed longer and longer in the Shadow World, always hunting for the knowledge to keep a dying species alive for a moment longer. You have no way of winning, you never did. The Carpathians' extinction is foretold. I saw this. Do you want to know what else? I saw my lifemate through the mists of the human shadow realm. She perished in a car accident. She was but six years of age, but I recognized her. She died a child and we never had a chance, I never had a chance. You call me selfish? If Mikhail would have released me from service, I could have found her, could have saved her, saved my humanity! What I have become is his fault!"

Luc kept his eyes steady on Tomas and stood perfectly still in the thickening fog. Whatever was bringing the fog was not natural, nor was it another Carpathian or vampire. Luc waited cautiously, fully sensing for a new threat. Luc knew something was close, but he could not identify it or its intent. Not a twitch gave away the tightly-coiled power in his muscled form. "I cannot pity you, vampire. You knew the evil you embraced and knew what you would become once you took life. Your lifemate died a child. If you had but waited, she could have been reborn. You lived barely three centuries. The great warriors of our people have lived more than a millennium, many of them without ever finding a lifemate. Worst of all your sins, in damning yourself you have also damned your innocent lifemate who will be born again and now never completed. You are nothing but a weak, selfish, fool."

His eyes twin furnaces of hate, the vampire roared and propelled himself skyward, attempting to flee. "I see what's coming for you, Luc, and it's death!"

Luc knew the truths he told Tomas enraged and frightened him, leaving his enemy vulnerable. As he launched himself skyward toward the vampire for the kill, the world tipped away and stabbing, colored lights burst before his eyes. Unimaginably, he was falling. Struggling to stay airborne and conscious, Luc's gut clenched in agony as the vampire kicked him with enough force to break his ribs. The fog and blurring colors blinded him. As his body hit the ground, he blocked out his pain and used his eyes' ability to sense through the blindness. There was a rider on a black stallion in the ravine below the cliffs. In this mind, Luc had a clear picture of the figure. It was covered in a flowing black cloak and hood. Raising an arm skyward, the cloak exposed a slender arm. The scent of cinnamon and jasmine enveloped Luc as the rider's voice, a woman's, echoed through the canyon.

"You called for death, evil one, and I have answered. Death is now yours!"

A blue burst of light pooled from her outstretched palm and arced, forming lighting, while the sky rippled as if it would collapse inward. Thunder reverberated off the cliffs in every direction. In the lighting's flash, the arm and hand appeared skeletal, nothing but bones. The next instant, the arm was once again flesh. Luc's vision cleared enough for him to look up. Blue light poured out from a hole in the vampire's chest where his heart should be. Before Tomas could react, he exploded in sphere of light. Not even ashes remained to drift to earth.

Luc's mind and heart were racing and he was bombarded by feelings. He stood, dizzy with sensation and pain, and his heart pounded in his chest. He locked his eyes on the rider below. His normally deep brown eyes rimed in amber bled to pure red, a mirror of a vampire's. He accepted what he knew. Astoundingly. a woman had made a kill. Impossibly, she was his lifemate.

"_**My lifemate!"**_

His emotions screamed to claim her.

"_**Mine!" **_

He growled the words low in his throat, never taking his eyes off the cloaked figure. He felt her sudden attention on him. Her mind reached out to sense him, a soft probing like a whisper or brushed caress to his mind, foreign yet enticing. Hiis beast awakened and roared with the need to posses and protect. Thinking how small she looked mounted on the horse and desperate to see her face, Luc opened his mind to her to let her know he was coming. He dissolved into mist and streamed down the cliff to reach her. An instant later, he took his form.

His eyes narrowed in anger and disbelief as he scanned the gorge, and then he roared in rage.

He was alone, no scent or trace of her in the gathering darkness.


End file.
